CHEAP GLASS STRUCTURES. 



as is usually prepared for vines ; or a mixture of good cucumber and melon mould, 

 or rich garden soil, is quite sufficient for the purpose. Instead of sowing the 

 seed, I transplant in the boxes, either from the clumps or border, or from plants 

 previously raised for that purpose, forming only one row along the middle of the 

 box, at four to six inches apart from plant to plant, and pinching off the tops of 

 each as soon as I plant them. If I plant large specimens, which I frequently do 

 very successfully, I pinch all the shoots back to the first joint of each ; and as 

 they push fresh shoots, I continue to pinch them all back to the first joint of each 

 shoot, till the box becomes nearly full, or till I think I shall soon require them to 

 be in bloom, when I stop them no longer, and allow them to shoot out for flower- 

 ing. Still, I occasionally pinch them in so as to keep them in a judicious trim ; 

 and frequently thin out many branches, that they may not become too crowded, so 

 as to weaken the plants, or endanger the stems by damping off. By the above 

 treatment I have had Mignonette, that has been planted early in the spring, kept 

 in fine and vigorous bloom, at the outside of windows, till the end of January. 



This season, I sowed a good deal of this little favorite round the beds and bor- 

 ders, but owing to our cold, wet, clay soil, and the unfavorable season, in many 

 parts it either never came up, or so weak that it dwindled off afterwards ; but on 

 some parts of the higher and drier grounds it came up tolerably well, which has 

 given me plenty to transplant at this more favorable season into the less congenial 

 soils, where it had gone off ; and by my box treatment it is now promising to do 

 well. Until it gets a proper vigor, I keep picking out the blossom-buds as soon 

 as I can detect them, or pinch back the shoots, to make them strong, bushy plants. 

 Those I leave after thinning I treat just in the same manner as the transplanted 

 ones ; so that one single plant only left becomes a much finer specimen than by leav- 

 ing more. The usual manner of leaving it to ramble where it chooses, and all the 

 plants which spring up from seed, is always disagreeable to the sight ; and it soon 

 exhausts itself by rambling seeds and blossom. Some plants are trained to a 

 single stem, and tied to a stake ; and these may be either trained to form into a 

 bushy head at any convenient height, or spurred into the first joint, so as to have 

 them in blossom the whole height of the stem, as far as it may be desired, in 

 which state it is really a very pretty object. 



CHEAP GLASS STRUCTURES, AND GRAPES. 



There are thousands in our extended country who are deterred from using 

 much glass on their grounds, through fear of the cost. They cau enjoy straw- 

 berries in February, figs in March, grapes in April, or peaches, apricots, and 

 plums, in May or June ; they would not even care to give double or treble the 

 ordinary price for them at these seasons, but, at the rate of near a dollar a mouth- 

 ful, republican purses very properly contract. But these luxuries are often more 

 within our means than we imagine. They can be produced in ])roperly constructed 

 cheap houses as well as in properly constructed dear ones ; and we truly believe 

 that, when our Yankee genius has been properly applied to the matter, we may 

 have the best of hothouse grapes, in profusion, in May and June, coining a 

 fortune for the grower, if he is in want of one, at 50 to 75 cents per pound. 



We present herewith a plan of a cheap structure, which has been successfully 

 employed, in Germany, for cultivating peaches, apricots, and grapes, as described 

 in the London Gardener's Chronicle. It may not be exactly suited to our wants, 

 will need very little modification. It may be remarked, that it is adapted 

 to cases where the fruit-trees are growing against a wall or fence : — 



